Impact of Benthic Organisms to Mitigate Water Pollution in the Indian River Lagoon

• Activity Number: 431 - Contributed Poster Presentations: Section on Statistics and the Environment
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 10, 2022 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics and the Environment
• Author(s): Rebecca Beltran* and Alyssa Sharma and Kelli Hunsucker and Ryan White and Nezamoddin N. Kachouie
• Companies: Aquinas College and Appalachian State University and Florida Institute of Technology and Florida Institute of Technology and Florida Institute of Technology
• Keywords: Climate Change; Water Filtration; Benthic Organisms; Oyster Mats; Statistical Modeling; Beta Regression

Abstract

Water pollution has been an increasing problem both at the global and local scale. With global warming and ocean acidification at its peak, significant rise in harmful algal blooms, and coral bleaching that provides a source of growth for many benthic organisms are now at risk. Water pollution negatively impact the ecosystem causing damage to many marine and land species as well as causing waterborne disease for humans. Benthic organisms are organisms that grow in, on, or near the seafloor. They are extremely important to the ecosystems in which they live due to the fact that a large number of them filter particulates from the surrounding water and make up large parts of lower levels of the food chain. Particulates can be biotic or abiotic and can potentially be harmful. Our research focus is at the local scale of the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) located on the east coast of Florida and extends about 156 miles. Four docks were accessed to sample benthic organisms from 10/2020 to 10/2021. Environmental factors including water salinity, turbidity, pH balance, and temperature were also collected from closest water station to each dock. The goal of this study is to quantify the impact of organisms on water pollution.